A grammaphone which, it is said, can be heard at a distance of three miles is the latest invention of the Hon. C. A. Parsons, of turbine fame. The instrument, which was exhibited privately at Metzler's Hall on Monday, is named the auxetophone, and is worked by means of compressed air. This is pumped in by a small engine at a pressure which can be adjusted up • to over 3 pounds, through a small valve, which takes the place of the ordinary diaphragm, into the trumpet. The valve consists of a number of small slots, covered with a fine comb, not unlike the mouth organ, and the vibration of this comb produces the sound. On a calm, windless day, it is estimated that, with a high pressure, the record could be distinctly heard three miles away.

Various metals which are themselves non-magnetic, may form alloys which display magnetic qualities; some of these have been produced in recent experiments. Aluminum, copper and manganese are all non-magnetic, but when combined in certain proportions, an alloy of considerable magnetism is produced. As no alloy of copper and aluminum alone is magnetic, this effect must be ascribed to the manganese, and yet this metal alone, as well as copper and aluminum, remained non-magnetic wben cooled to the temperature of liquid air. An alloy of manganese with iron is practically non-magnetic, but with the same manganese a magnetic copper alloy can be made.-"Engineering Review. "

In some experiments carried out at the Iowa State College by Messrs. H. T. Borsheim and L. C. Moody on the efficiency of steam-pipe coverings, it was noted that with a steam pressure of 20 pounds per square inch in the pipe the loss in a bare pipe amounted to 2,405 B. T. U. per hour per square foot per degree of difference of temperature. With 40 pounds of steam the corresponding figure was 2,589, with 60 pounds of steam 2,686, with 80 pounds of steam, 2,752, and with 100 pounds of pressure, 2,897 B. T. U. per hour per square foot and per degree of temperature difference.

The electrical resistance [of the human body as a whole is also beginning to receive attention, with some unexpected results. Herr E. K. Muller, in a paper contributed by him to a Swiss technical journal, tells us, as the outcome of some careful experiments made by him, that it is by no means uniform with all individuals, although it is for the most part somewhere near to 3,000 ohms. So wide are the variations that he is led to believe that every person has a normal resistance peculiar to himself or herself. But apart from this, it varies from moment to moment in response to every emotion from within, and nearly every sensation coming from the outside world. By carefully insulating his subjects, Herr Muller found that the entrance of a stranger into the room where the experiments were conducted caused an instant variation, as did the exertion of speaking, the falling of a ray of light upon the eye, the attempt to listen, or the perception of a powerful smell. He thinks that this hitherto unsus pected sensitiveness of the body accounts in great part for the images seen in dreams. He finds, too, that the resistance is very low with whole classes, such as persons accounted " nervous " and smokers and drinkers. With the hypnotized there is a wonderful tranquility, or invariability of the resistance, so long as the patient is undisturbed, coupled with an increased sensitiveness to external sights and sounds.

The largest double-throw crankshaft in the world was recently forged under the 4,000 ton hydraulic press of the Bethlehem Steel Company, South Bethlehem, Pa. The shaft is cne of three ordered by the International Steam Pump Company. It will be, when finished, 27 ft. long. The largest pin diameter is 37 in. The webs in extreme dimensions will be 64 in. by 49 in. and 16 8/8 in. thick. The weight of the lingot was 240,000 pounds.